Grace Church | Red Hill is deeply rooted, ​boldly inclusive, and fully committed to the well-being of the earth and all living things.

This Coming Sunday:March 18

Dear Folks,

On the Tuesdays during Lent, I invite you to fast from sunup to sundown. For those who are fasting, planning to fast, or even imagining keeping a fast, here are some thoughts and a prayer:

I’m one who finds fasting from food a real challenge. I live to eat rather than eat to live. Then I hear that someone is fasting from social media and another is fasting from saying no. Or I read that the Charis Community has committed to "fast from white supremacy culture." And I’m intrigued by fasting’s elasticity and fascinated by the spiritual depth such practices intimate.

John Cassian, a Christian leader from the 4th century, helps us explore the spiritual nuances of fasting and its benefits for our bodies and souls:

Let us not believe that an external fast from visible food alone can possibly be sufficient for perfection of heart and purity of body unless with it there has also been united a fast of the soul. For the soul also has its foods that are harmful. Slander is its food and indeed one that is very dear to it. A burst of anger also supplies it with miserable food for an hour and destroys it as well with its deadly savor. Envy is food of the mind, corrupting it with its poisonous juices and never ceasing to make it wretched and miserable at the prosperity and success of another. Vanity is its food which gratifies the mind with a delicious meal for a time but afterward strips it clear and bare of all virtue. Then vanity dismisses it barren and void of all spiritual fruit. All lust and shift wanderings of heart are a sort of food for the soul, nourishing it on harmful meats but leaving it afterwards without a share of its heavenly bread and really solid food. If then, with all the powers we have, we abstain from these in a most holy fast our observance of the bodily fast will be both useful and profitable. (John Cassian,Making Life a Prayer: Selected Writings)Dear God, help us in our fast from food this day and help us to fast from that which harms the soul. Amen.

Be well,

Neal

CommunityNotes

On Sunday, March 18, Peter S. Hawkins will preach. Peter is Professor of Religion and Literature at Yale Divinity School, where he teaches courses on Dante's Commedia, lyric poetry, American short fiction, and the literary afterlife of the Bible. He is in Charlottesville for a month and will give theJames W Richard Lecturesin mid-April, First Person Singular: Voicing the Christian "I".

Join the Charis Community and friends in a Lenten worship series, "Rooting out White Supremacy, Rooting into Communion," each Sunday in Lent at 5:00 pm beginning Feb. 18 in the church at 960 Monacan Trail Rd. The worship will focus on aspects of white supremacy culture-- not just overt racism, but also systemic characteristics like paternalism and individualism. Together, we will dwell in and repent of this system of sin, and then dream of new alternatives and encourage each other in transformed ways of being. The season of Lent traditionally focuses on fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. This Lent, come fast from white supremacy culture, give yourself over to the hope of a new way, and join your community in corporal prayer for healing of ourselves and the world. A simple soup and bread meal will be served after the service. FB event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/230523997490174/

Calling a Lenten fast. On the Tuesdays during Lent, I invite you to fast from sunup to sundown. I'll send out a note and a prayer. Every Wednesday at 9:10 am, we host a time of contemplation at Good Shepherd, Hickory Hill at 960 Monacan Trail Road/Highway 29.

Interested in gardening? These days are perfect for planning the garden on the land that GC|RH has been loaned to use for that purpose. Please let Monique Boatwright or me know if you’d like to be part of this food project! Here's a great interview about food and faith.